"And A S.W.A.T Team in a Pear Tree": Hip Hop Christmas songs

Have you grown tired of hearing the same played out Christmas songs on 99.1 yet? Of course you have. Even if you avoid the radio, you hear the music at the grocery store, company holiday parties, even at bars you escape to in order to avoid holiday overcheer. It's almost depressing. Christmas can be crunk, and we're going to prove it to you.

With so many holiday parties going on this week and next, it might be hard to stay in the spirit after hearing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas (Is You)" for the 600th time. It's time to spike your relatives' eggnog with some Henny (believe us, it's a good combination), spice up your Christmas party playlist, and get the party poppin'.

We put together a playlist of ten of our favorite hip-hop Christmas songs from unlikely artists who decided to join in the Christmas song tradition. We made sure to include tracks from Afroman, Jim Jones, Ying Yang Twins, and others that left us wondering why our friends at Sunny have no sense of hip-hop holiday hospitality.

Afroman "The 12 J's of X-Mas"
Afroman released this parody Christmas album, A Colt 45 Christmas in 2006. Afroman ditched the holly for weed and replaced the eggnog with a bottle of Colt 45. Tracks include "Oh Chronic Tree" and "Deck My Balls"

Ying Yang Twins "Deck Da Club"
This was a special find for us. We didn't know that the Ying Yang Twins were still making these kind of club songs. They've obviously stayed loyal to their crunk roots and are probably the only group to make a crunk Christmas album.

Mr. Lif "Santa's Got a Mothafuckin' Uzi"
Mr. Lif is usually one for heavy political rap, but he got in the holiday spirit (can't you tell by his cheerful face?) with this song about Santa robbing him.

Jim Jones ft. Stack Bundlez & J.R. Writer, "Ballin on X-Mas"
Jim Jones released his first Christmas album in 2006, called A Dipset Xmas . Even though the cover is pretty corny, this album is actually good enough to include in your holiday party rotation. It'll for sure be in ours, at least. It includes the pre-incarcerated Max B and the late Stack Bundles. Jones was quoted saying, "I wanted to make a Christmas album for kids in the hood and shit like that." It's not for the kids, though.

Busta Rhymes ft. Jim Carrey, "Grinch 2000"
This song was on the soundtrack to the Grinch movie, starring Jim Carrey, in 2000. Carrey does the introduction drop, still using his Grinch voice: "This is a Flip Mode Squad and Jim Carrey collabo!"

Master P & C-Murder, "Christmas In The Ghetto"
This track is from the 1994 EP High Fo Xmas from the West Coast Bad Boyz. The album was a compilation distributed by No Limit Records. Don't let the "West Coast" throw you, though; we know C-Murder and Master P are classic New Orleans artists. They were called the West Coast Bad Boyz because the label originally started in the Bay Area of California, where Master P's mom lived. In 1995, P. Miller moved the HQ back to his hometown.

Kurtis Blow "Christmas Rappin'"
Blow was the first rapper to be signed to a major label in 1979. This was his first single, released by Mercury Records.

Westside Connection (Ice Cube, Mack 10, WC) "It's The Holidaze"
You might remember this song from The Friday After Next. The group released a few songs for various soundtracks, but the members mainly focused on their solo projects. They only ever released two albums: one in 1996 ( Bow Down ) and one in 2003 ( Terrorist Threat ). This was one of the last tracks before they broke up due to a conflict between Cube and Mack 10.

Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Bad Azz "Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto"
Snoop covered this song, originally by James Brown . The track was included on Death Row Records' 1996 Christmas compilation album, Christmas on Death Row .

Run-D.M.C, "Christmas In Hollis"
No Christmas hip-hop list could be complete without "Christmas in Hollis." The song takes place in Hollis, the neighborhood where the group grew up in Queens, New York. Unlike Dipset's take on this song, the original version is family-friendly and will forever remain a classic. Remember Die Hard? Argyle is playing this song in the limo when McClane asks, "Do you have any Christmas music?" Argyle replies: "This is Christmas music."